November 5, 2024 — A D.C. Circuit panel grappled Monday with the fallout from the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn a longstanding legal doctrine which allowed federal judges to defer to a government agency’s interpretation of a challenged statue.
The high court ruled 6-3 in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that the doctrine, known as Chevron deference, should be overturned and that federal judges themselves should instead “exercise their independent judgment” when an agency oversteps its authority.
That case was originally argued before the D.C. Circuit in 2021, the appellate circuit that deals the most with challenges against federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and, in this case, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
In its decision to overturn Chevron, the high court remanded the case to the three-judge panel to reassess claims by a coalition of fishing companies that the government was wrong to require they pay the wages of independent “at-sea monitors.”